No, Jon Snow’s Sword Longclaw Did Not “Open Its Eyes” on GAME OF THRONES

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You get a lot of frantic questions from friends and family about Game of Thrones when you’re lucky enough to write about it professionally like I am. And after Sunday night’s “Beyond the Wall” a lot of them–and apparently millions of other viewers too–keep asking about one potentially insane moment:

Did Jon Snow‘s Valyrian steel sword Longclaw open its eyes when he climbed out of the lake?

If you don’t know what all the excitement is over, watch this gif and focus on the eye in the wolf head hilt, as it appears to go from white to black when Jon pulls himself up.

Crazy, right? I see why I keep being asked about it. But could that possibly be what it seems to be? Is the sword literally coming to life when Jon comes back from the icy depths of the lake? Could this be a magical sword, maybe even Lightbringer!?

Nooooooope. Sorry. But this one doesn’t hold frozen water.

Longclaw’s eyes always look “black,” including earlier in this episode when Jon tried to give it back to Jorah, since Jorah’s father Lord Commander Jeor Mormont gave it to Jon.

But it’s not that its eyes “turned white” at some point—it’s that it’s eyes don’t have any color at all. Reddit user heppyatheist figured it out: “The eyes are just a piece of crystal, you can see when his glove is particularly behind it only half the eye turns dark, then fills out when his hand is directly behind the handle.”

He’s right. Watch this slow-mo version and you’ll see how the eye “turns” partially black as Jon’s gloved hand comes up behind it.

You can also see different shades of white and blue at first in our featured image above. It’s not even all white to start with.

The whiteness was just the color of the snow behind it, which changed to black when Jon came into the shot. Sorry if that bums you out, we didn’t mean to burst your bubble like a an ice javelin hitting a dragon, but this was a happy accident.

But honestly? I’m really glad this was just an optical illusion, because as far as Game of Thrones questions go this one wasn’t too hard.

And I honestly have no idea what it would have meant if a sword came to life.

Did you catch this when you watched the episode? What did you make of it? What about this explanation? Open our eyes with your thoughts below.